Genesis 9:1-7

Enjoy the gift of food (9.2-3)- eating food has to do with our dominion over the animals.

Value the gift of life (9.4-6)- but verse 4 prohibits animal cruelty and calls us to still respect animal life; capital punishment values human life and is grounded in the image of God; human beings have no value apart from their Creator.

Capital punishment is a bit different from the way God dealt with Cain, where God protected Cain from human vengeance. But it’s not completely different. In Gen 2.17 God said “in the day you eat of [the fruit] you shall surely die.” God has always had death as the penalty for sin. God is the God of capital punishment. Genesis 9 is simply God’s blessing upon societies to discourage violence.